UC Berkeley to team with new Saudi university

UC BERKELEY UC Berkeley to reap millions for its help finding professors, collaborating on research

Tanya Schevitz, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, March 4, 2008

UC Berkeley is set to sign a deal with a soon-to-open graduate university in Saudi Arabia that would give Cal millions of dollars in exchange for its help in hiring professors and collaborating on research.

Al Pisano, chairman of Cal's mechanical engineering department, described it as a mutually beneficial "academic excellence alliance." Few details were made public.

The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology is being built on the Red Sea at Thuwal, about 50 miles north of Saudi Arabia's second-largest city, Jidda. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2009 and will accept students of both sexes.

Cal's job will be to help develop the new university's mechanical engineering curriculum, identify high-quality professors, and participate in future joint research projects.

The agreement is attractive to UC Berkeley because it will provide an infusion of money at a time when the state is cutting the budget for the 10-campus University of California system. The Saudi money will allow the mechanical engineering department to upgrade laboratories, support graduate students and bolster efforts to recruit women into the department, Pisano said.

The cash, described as "a substantial amount," comes with no restrictions on where or how it is spent, Pisano added. He would not specify exactly how much money is involved but other sources at the university said it will total in the millions.

Possible joint research topics "will benefit not only the Middle East but California," Pisano said, and may include such things as improved desalination of ocean water, innovations in alternative energy and the development of lightweight materials for cars, planes and buildings.

The new deal was approved by 34 of the 44 tenure-track faculty members in the mechanical engineering department, he said. Two professors dissented and others were not present for the vote.

Opponents say that even if the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology does not discriminate against women and Jews, it is located in a country that does.

And they worry that UC Berkeley is selling its prestige.

"It is like we are selling our name for the new university to be able to say, 'We have Berkeley-class faculty,' " said one engineering professor, who asked that his name not be used for fear of retribution. "A public university has no business saying that."

Pisano acknowledged that some Berkeley professors have raised concerns about discrimination in Saudi Arabia. He said that the final terms of the agreement with the university are being worked out but that there will be no discrimination allowed.

"We are going to have an agreement in which any kind of discrimination will be forbidden," Pisano said. "This new university will have no discrimination at all."

He said that even having an island of nondiscrimination will make inroads for the rest of the country.

"You get it started on a small scale and get it going from there," Pisano said.

UC Berkeley spokeswoman Marie Felde said Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and his chief academic officer, George Breslauer, were consulted on the alliance. They would not have approved it if they hadn't believed it would improve the lives of women in Saudi Arabia by providing them with additional educational opportunities, Felde said.

It is the first agreement of its kind at Berkeley, although Birgeneau recently traveled to India to build alliances in higher education and has also pursued relationships with universities in Asia and Europe. Jeff Weintraub, a spokesman for King Abdullah University in the United States, said he could not give specifics about the deal. However, he said the Saudi Arabian university is seeking such partnerships with Cal and other prestigious schools.

"How do you start a world-class university from scratch? They figured out the structural part. You can build a glorious structure ... but you have nothing if you don't have real minds running all that," Weintraub said. "The idea here is to develop the intellectual capital."

Latest from the SFGATE homepage:

Click below for the top news from around the Bay Area and beyond. Sign up for our newsletters to be the first to learn about breaking news and more. Go to 'Sign In' and 'Manage Profile' at the top of the page.